Most plated bullet makers that I've used say to start with the upper end of the lead loads. Berry's goes on to say use low to mid FMJ ranges. None of them recommend low lead loads.
I don't think you can blame Lee's manual, as they don't test and just copy published load data. That load more than likely would work with soft lead 38 spl rounds. Hornady's min load is 3.2 grs with their 158 gr swaged bullets.
Sounds like you were look at 38 spl loading, I know you said 357, the 3.4 listed by Hodgdon just seems flat out wrong for .357 with any bullet.